5TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering & Science - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2018-02-01)

Experimental And Numerical Investigation On Fair-faced Concrete

Abstract: Fair-Face Concrete (FFC) has recently gained popularity in the architectural design of modem buildings due to its aesthetic look, uniform color, natural surface texture, lowering cost by avoiding plastering and cladding (i.e. save material, labor cost, and construction period) and makes structures more sustainable and easier to recycle. Given the many benefits of FFC, it is essential to have exhaustive knowledge about the fresh and hardened properties of FFC to answer the question whether structural elements made with FFC can give the same mechanical properties as those provided by the normal traditional concrete. Within this context, an extensive experimental campaign has been conducted at the University of Asia Pacific to investigate the mechanical properties of FFC made with burnt clay brick and natural stone aggregates. All the results were then compared with reference normal concrete (NC) made with both aggregates. The NC was made with 100% Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), while the FFC was made with a combination of White Ordinary Portland Cement (WOPC) and OPC. Additionally, an unconstrained nonlinear optimization scheme known as Nelder-Mead Simplex Method was employed for modeling stress-strain behavior of FFC and NC. In this model, the experimentally measured data were used for optimization of the stress-strain relation. The experimental results have shown that the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of FFC is higher than NC. It was also observed that the outer surface of FFC is smoother, impressive in color, and brighter than NC. Keywords: Aesthetical look, compressive strength, fair-faced concrete, stress-strain relation, white ordinary Portland cement.
Mohammad S. Miah, Md Jihad Miah, M. M. Hossain, Suvash Chandra Paul